Critics are right to point-score

By Stuart Barnes

12:11AM GMT 08 Dec 2003

Perhaps the Welsh media will be considering joining their counterparts in Australian and New Zealand in the campaign to have the sacred art of the dropped goal devalued to a single point after Saturday.

It was a cool, collected kick, in the best Jonny Wilkinson tradition. England manager Clive Woodward (who admires the traditional virtues of the Sale pivot) talked about "the dropped-goal routine" minutes after Cardiff had been mugged by the right boot of the Englishman.

Such a rehearsed routine should come as no great surprise to anybody. Drop-kicking is the easiest way to win a match and it stands to reason that any professional unit are going to prepare for such knife-edge eventualities as occurred in Stockport and Sydney.

But is it right and proper that teams and players are spending time and energy focusing on such a method of victory when the essence of rugby is running with the ball, or so we were once led to believe?

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Isn't a drop kick corner-cutting? Not cheating obviously, but rather like your accountant finding a crafty taxation loophole which is perfectly legal, there is a certain moral stigma attached to this "stuff it, it is within the laws of the game" attitude.

The 'haves' (Wilkinson) say yea to the drop, those who lack their own maestro resound in nays. Which side will the International Rugby Board be on if and when they discuss the issue? Let us hope any rationale to act is not based upon spurious short- term national interests that invoke devotion to the traditional virtues of the running game. Do not trust such people, especially if they come wearing black.

Had the All Blacks possessed either a Don Clarke or a Grant Fox in their World Cup team, a part of their media would be pressing for the IRB to increase the three-point method of scoring. Few Australians whined when Stephen Larkham wobbled a dropped goal over in the World Cup semi-final against South Africa in 1999.

The fact is there is only one way to play the game of rugby properly and that is to play it to win. The argument was altered when New Zealand believed a threatening upsurge of interest in rugby league was challenging its traditional supporters' base. The result was Super Twelve, a fine tournament at its best but one that endeavours to make rugby union a little more like a game of draughts than the muscular chess that has so enthralled its adherents over a century.

The best teams are not the ones that sling it 'willy nilly' around the park but the ones that understand the variety needed to beat opponents. Running the ball all day, granted, is far more appealing on the eye than the trudge of 10-man rugby on a wet and windy day, yet rugby union has its wet and windy days. It is an intrinsic part of the sport's appeal.

Much as it would suit Australia, the 15-man code is not league. But, in world terms, it need not imitate its fast-flowing cousin. In league, the dropped goal is a useful bonus point. It is hardly a rarity but the likelihood of league producing a Wilkinson or a Jannie de Beer is very small.

However, heretical as it may seem to an Englishman right now, league has this single point. The dropped goal is not worth 60 per cent of the value of a try. It limits the potential for the game's appeal to less grizzled fans of the sport on all but the big atmosphere days and the door for newcomers must remain open. It would make sense if the dropped goal was devalued, not because of some purist fantasy but because the expertise of professional teams and individuals (10 years ago no side would have the time in their snatched hours of training to devise a dropped-goal routine) has distorted the value through increased utilisation and pitches that are year round conducive to drop-kicking.

England would still have won the World Cup had the drop been worth just one point but on Saturday Hodgson's late strike would have only tied the match, leaving the away team far the happier at full time. Were the kick's value just one point, Sale would have been more inclined to go for a try. That, surely, would be good for the game.

Hodgson's kick was superb and it was no harsher on Cardiff than Wilkinson's was on Australia. These are the current rules and there is nothing wrong with playing to the rules. But are the next generation of little Jonnys threatening the balance of the scoring system? Dropped goals are an overvalued commodity in rugby's market place. Its critics are right, even if for the wrong reasons.